Chelsea vs Man Metropolis: Enzo Maresca’s reunion with grandmaster Pep Guardiola is a narrative of soccer and chess | Soccer Information

Enzo Maresca’s first aggressive match managing Chelsea will pit him in opposition to Pep Guardiola and his champion Manchester Metropolis group. For Maresca, it is going to be a big second. An opportunity to check himself in a footballing chess-match in opposition to the perfect.

Maresca might have described one other Manchester Metropolis boss Manuel Pellegrini as “like a father” to him however it’s Guardiola whom he most admires. He nonetheless remembers their first dialog when Guardiola was teaching Barcelona and he was a participant for Malaga.

The pair related over their reminiscences of Carlo Mazzone, the charismatic Italian coach who had been in control of Cagliari when Maresca was a younger prospect there. He would later coach Brescia throughout Guardiola’s stint in Italy in the direction of the top of his enjoying days.

After they met, Guardiola was already the pre-eminent coach of his technology however Maresca’s personal concepts about soccer had been nonetheless formulating. He has since revealed that he studied Guardiola throughout this era – alongside a rising fascination with chess.

Thesis on soccer and chess

Maresca had been taking chess classes for 4 years when he selected it as the topic of his thesis in finishing his teaching badges at Coverciano, the esteemed Italian ending college. He admitted that he solely got interested as soon as he needed to teach.

At over 7,000 phrases, it’s an in-depth exploration of the similarities between the 2 video games. He compares opening idea in chess to constructing from the again in soccer, discusses the battle for management of the centre, and the significance of high quality within the endgame.

Guardiola is referenced not directly, when Maresca refers to his mentor Johan Cruyff as having been a footballing-chess participant, and straight when he quotes him on the significance of controlling that centre. Management the midfield and management the match, he explains.

Maresca goes on to debate how that may be executed in numerous methods – this can be a thesis. And when he writes of how the positional recreation typically requires conserving a central piece in the identical spot to achieve a bonus slightly than danger shifting it, that feels pure Guardiola.

A few of it appears sensible. Maresca highlights the significance, in soccer and in chess, of attempting to create numerical superiorities or one-on-ones in sure areas of the pitch. Final season, it was two Leicester gamers who topped the charts for many one-on-ones.

At different instances, it’s extra about Maresca’s thought-process than any tactic. “I came to the conclusion that playing chess can train the mind of a coach,” he writes, claiming that it develops the prefrontal cortex of the mind, answerable for planning and anticipation.

Certainly, a part of his fascination stems from the thought that examine would possibly assist him to anticipate what’s coming subsequent. “The fundamental element of chess is the logic that leads a player to understand and thus predict the moves of the opponents,” he argues.

That’s fascinating as a result of that is just about how Tommy Doyle, the previous Manchester Metropolis midfielder, describes the expertise of enjoying for Maresca. “He gave brilliant advice. What Enzo told us to do and how the games panned out was everything that he said.”

Reworking Metropolis’s kids

Maresca reworked Metropolis’s growth aspect and previous to Leicester’s Championship title win he described the achievement of profitable Premier League 2 with them because the proudest of his profession. It was an accomplishment as a result of he modified the mentality.

“It was not based on winning, it was about playing nice football.” That was Doyle’s tackle what got here earlier than. As James McAtee put it: “When Enzo came in, he said, ‘we want to make history and win the league’. And we went and did it. Training got more intense.”

Maresca approached the duty with the angle of a head coach slightly than somebody working in growth. It’s a delicate steadiness as a result of academy graduates must be nurtured however this isn’t youth soccer and so they must be ready for the subsequent step too.

Ceri Bowley helped devise the methodology at Metropolis Soccer Group and remembers properly the impression that Maresca had on these younger gamers. Guardiola had earmarked him as a possible assistant already however that function was a take a look at of what he may do. He handed it.

“When that job came up,” Bowley tells Sky Sports activities, “they wanted to give him that experience of being involved in the group, to understand it, to see up close whether he was the right fit for the environment, the way that he wants to work and sees the game.

“They had been superb that 12 months and gained the league fairly convincingly. He had an excellent group, don’t get me improper, however you could possibly simply see by the way in which that the group performed and the way they kicked on from the years earlier, the impression that he had on it.”

When Maresca left to take the Parma job, Brian Barry-Murphy was tasked with changing him at Metropolis. Now, as then, he’s open about it being a frightening act to observe. “The performances and results were incredible that season,” Barry-Murphy tells Sky Sports activities.

“Previously they had been seen as an academy team and one that was still part of that academy. Enzo separated that team. He wanted those players to start to understand what it was like to be a senior professional and a prospective first-team player.”

Barry-Murphy arrived to seek out the mentality reworked. “When I got there, the players were insanely competitive and obsessed with improving to win. They had won their first trophy, the acclaim they were getting was the same as a first-team player starting out.”

Returning as Guardiola’s assistant

Because of this, when that chance at Parma didn’t work out and Guardiola’s assistant Juanma Lillo’s departure for Qatar opened up a first-team emptiness, it was no shock that Maresca was supplied a route again to Metropolis, this time working with the seniors.

Guardiola has described the work executed with that growth squad as “extraordinary” and whereas Lillo had been a mentor to him, Maresca was totally different. “I feel it like I felt it when I saw Mikel Arteta.” In his view, the potential to be an elite supervisor was clear.

“He is a really humble guy, if he wasn’t then Pep would not have had him,” says Bowley. “I was always impressed. He has a very clear identity of how he wants his team to play and is very good in how he communicates that to players. Really clear, really simple.”

His season by Guardiola’s aspect grew to become probably the most profitable in Metropolis’s historical past as they gained the treble. Coincidence? Maybe not. Maresca performed his half. “It was significant for me that he was so active and so involved in the coaching,” says Barry-Murphy.

“Pep is such a dominant figure because he is so good and commands everyone’s respect, so it can be easy to stay in the background and not be super-active. But Enzo coached from day one and you could see the respect players had for him was instant.”

“We all see the tactical outcomes of the innovation for which Pep receives acclaim. But people do not see the technical work that goes into it to give the players the confidence that it will work. They work on that every day and that is why the level is so high.

“Enzo was concerned with that and helped the gamers to enhance these technical actions and ideas. He could be concerned in the whole lot. He could be teaching all of the gamers at totally different instances and, the identical as Pep, it’s not segmented, it is extremely group targeted.”

Implementing concepts at Leicester

Maresca’s affiliation with Metropolis’s success persuaded Leicester to nominate him as their new head coach final summer season and he left once more, seizing the possibility to point out that lots of the concepts that he had labored on with the champions may work within the Championship.

In his absence, Metropolis retained their title having 65 per cent of the ball, however Maresca’s Leicester’s aspect weren’t far behind in profitable their very own division with 62 per cent of the possession. Most of the elementary ideas of play had been quickly imported.

The goalkeeper performed out from the again and Ricardo Pereira was tried as an inverted full-back. Kiernan Dewsbury-Corridor, who has since adopted Maresca to Chelsea, revealed that the gamers felt “a bit stupid” within the early weeks as a result of stage of element.

Harry Winks, a senior England worldwide who has performed underneath no fewer than three former Chelsea managers – Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochettino – instructed Sky Sports activities that Maresca was by far one of the best supervisor that he had ever labored with.

Echoes of Guardiola? “They see the game in similar ways,” provides Barry-Murphy. “The way they coach is a total dedication to improving players so they feel comfortable with what they are being asked to do. That core way of playing and coaching is similar, I think.”

Will all this work at Chelsea?

That work has now earned Maresca his likelihood at Chelsea. They’re little question attracted by the tantalising prospect of getting recognized the subsequent Guardiola, a coach able to implementing comparable concepts, maximising the potential of a squad full of expertise.

They could be proper. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool challenged Guardiola’s domination with their distinctive fashion however the subsequent threats are more likely to come from like-minded souls. Arteta’s Arsenal and now one other former deputy throughout the capital over at Stamford Bridge.

“Where I think the game has shifted, definitely in the Premier League, is that teams need control,” says Bowley. “The misconception with City’s methodology is that it was about possession. Our focus was on control not possession. That is what you are seeing now.

“Groups are realising that it is extremely tough to achieve success with a mannequin that’s constructed round counter-attack. You have got to have the ability to management the ball to regulate the sport, so there may be this actual urge for food across the recreation for the coaches from Metropolis Soccer Group.

“One of the biggest challenges is that people say they want a methodology and a style of play, but they do not realise what it takes. The one thing I can guarantee it takes, and Mikel Arteta is proof of that, is time. It is not an overnight thing.

“You can not take the Metropolis methodology and play that means from day one as a result of it doesn’t work like that. You must recognize what it’s going to take and be actually aligned with the coaches as a sporting director. You can not simply go and signal who you want.

“That is why Txiki [Begiristain] is the best at it because he fully understands it. He looks at players in the same way that Pep looks at players. The sporting director has the same vision. The game style is already there. Everyone knows the identity. It is ingrained.”

The depth of Chelsea’s dedication to that strategy, and to Maresca, will probably be examined in time. However a quirk of the fixture checklist implies that the Italian’s most tough Stamford Bridge task will probably be his first. Guardiola’s Metropolis are the guests on the opening weekend.

It’s a assembly with the grandmaster. One which, in a way, Maresca has been getting ready for from that first assembly in Spain, to the idea work in Italy and the sensible classes in England. Ought to we count on a recreation of chess? The phrase by no means felt extra acceptable.

Watch Chelsea vs Man Metropolis reside on Sky Sports activities Premier League from 4pm on Sunday; kick-off 4.30pm